'I did not collude': Jared says his two hour sit-down with Senate Intelligence staffers went 'great' after he acknowledges four Russia contacts and says he explored secure line to get Syria info from Russian 'generals'

Jared Kushner released a 3,600-word statement ahead of the meeting with officials

He told reporters at the White House: 'I did not collude with Russia nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so'

President Trump's son-in-law acknowledged a brief meeting with Russia's infamous U.S. ambassador Sergey Kislyak in an 11-page statement

Also sat in on meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer and Don Jr.

Says he used cell phone trick to get out of the meeting after 10 minutes

Meeting with Putin-linked banker also detailed

Russian Sergey Gorkov brought as gifts art from Nvgorod, Kushner's ancestral village, as well as 'a bag of dirt' in possible gesture of his family's daring Holocaust story

Kushner spoke to Senate Intelligence Committee staff today behind closed doors for more than two hours

Kushner is senior adviser to the President and is married to his daughter Ivanka

Tomorrow he will talk, again privately, to the House Intelligence Committee

President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has denied colluding with the Russians during the 2016 campaign, after meeting with Senate investigators and releasing an 11-page statement revealing four contacts with Russians last year.

Speaking in front of the White House hours after releasing the account of his contacts with Russian officials, the key Trump advisor and husband of Ivanka Trump said: 'Let me be very clear: I did not collude with Russia nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did so.'

Kushner continued: 'I have not relied on Russian funds for my businesses. And I have been fully transparent in providing all requested information.'

Kushner spoke, without taking questions from the press, after spending more than two hours hours Monday morning answering questions from Senate Intelligence committee investigators – and announced the experience 'great.'

Scroll down for video to see Kushner speak

White House Senior Advisor and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner leaves the Hart Senate Office Building after testifying behind closed doors to the Senate Intelligence Committee about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election July 24, 2017 in Washington, DC

'It was great. I answered as many as they had,' Kushner said as left a closed meeting in the Senate's Hart office building.

That was all he said to throng of reporters and photographers who awaited words from the notoriously tight-lipped top advisor to President Trump after meeting with a bank of Intelligence staffers behind closed doors.

Kushner, accompanied by his lawyer Abbe Lowell as he walked by reporters, ignored a question from DailyMail.com about his latest disclosure – that he proposed a secure line of communication to Moscow in order to get information from Russian 'generals' touted by Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.

At the White House, lauding the father in law who made him a key confidante and installed him in Washington, Kushner said: 'Donald Trump had a better message and ran a smarter campaign, and that is why he won. Suggesting otherwise ridicules those who voted for him.'

Jared Kushner peaking to reporters outside the White House in Washington, Monday, July 24, 2017, after meeting on Capitol Hill behind closed doors with the Senate Intelligence Committee on the investigation into possible collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner walks away from the podium after speaking to reporters outside the White House in Washington, Monday, July 24, 2017

'Since the first questions were raised in March, I have been consistent in saying that I was eager to share any information I have with the investigating bodies, and I have done so today,' Kushner said. 'The record and documents I have voluntarily provided will show that all of my actions were proper and occurred in the normal course of events of a very unique campaign.'

Kushner said he had been 'fully transparent in providing all requested information.' Kushner has provided three revised federal disclosure forms after failing initially to disclose his contacts with Russians and foreigners. His most recent form revealed more than 100 contacts, and his statement Monday said he had had 'hundreds' of calls, emails, and messages from abroad during the campaign.

After his Senate meeting as he walked down a hallway packed with a crush of media, activist Ryan Clayton tried to hand Kushner a Russian flag to get him to sign it.

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, attend a joint news conference with the president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the East Room of the White House in Washington in March

'I think he's a liar. And everyone who reads that statement knows he's a liar,' said Clayton, as penned-in reporters recorded him. 'He is communicating through secret back channels with agents of the Russian government. We all know it. Why does everyone in the White House have all these connections to Russia?'

He told CNN as he left the Hart Senate Office Building that he answered all the questions that the Senate probers had.

Although he didn't take an oath before answering questions, it is against the law to give false information to Congress.

In a new bombshell statement issued early Monday morning, Kushner admitted he was in contact with the Russians four times during the presidential election and transition but denies that he colluded with Vladimir Putin's government.

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, with his attorney Abbe Lowell, right, departs Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, July 24, 2017, after meeting behind closed doors before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the investigation into possible collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign

RED, WHITE, AND BLUE: Ryan Clayton of Americans Take Action talks to reporters after he tried to shove a Russian flag toward White House Senior Advisor and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Hart Senate Office Building July 24, 2017 in Washington, DC. In a statement released before the closed-door meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee, Kushner said he met with people who represented or may have represented the Russian government four times

President Donald Trump's son-in-law admits he was in contact with the Russians four times during the presidential election and transition but denies that he colluded with Vladimir Putin's government.

Kushner released a 3,600-word statement ahead of his meeting today with congressional investigators probing Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential contest.

The statement acknowledges a meeting with Sergey Kislyak but describes the Russian ambassador as someone Kushner barely knows, and details his participation in an infamous meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer but says he tried to get out of it early.

In a new revelation about talk of setting up direct line of communication with the Kremlin, Kushner says the idea was to communicate with Russian 'generals' about Syria, but the idea got abandoned when Moscow didn't provide use of its secure facilities.

Kushner acknowledged exchanging only 'brief pleasantries' with Russia's infamous U.S. ambassador at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington – an event where President Trump spoke.

Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner makes a statement from at the White House after being interviewed by the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington on July 24, 2017

But Kushner says their contact was so limited he couldn't even recall Kislyak's name – and says he has a post-election email to substantiate his lack of familiarity.

He also formally acknowledged attending the Trump Tower meeting at the urging of Donald Trump Jr. that included a Kremlin-linked lawyer.

He is scheduled to speak to staff on the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors later today. Tomorrow, he'll speak privately to members of the House Intelligence Committee.

Both panels are investigating Russian interference in the election and possible connections between those efforts and the Trump campaign.

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner waves as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, July 24, 2017, to meet behind closed doors before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the investigation into possible collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign

Don Jr. meeting with Russian lawyer

Kushner described the meeting with the president's eldest son and a group of Russians as so pointless that he came up with a low-tech ruse to try to escape out early.

Kushner recalls sending an email to an assistant that asked, '"Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting."'

He said he only 'quickly reviewed' the email setting up the meeting on his iphone before he agreed to attend – a statement that presumably means he doesn't recall seeing an extended back-and-forth about promised dirt on Hillary Clinton and stated Russia government support for Trump when the idea of the sit-down was first initiated.

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 24, 2017, to testify before the Senate intelligence committee as part of the probe into alleged Russian meddling in last year's US presidential vote

Congressional investigators probing Russia's meddling in the US election will have their first opportunity this week to hear from someone in President Donald Trump's innermost circle - son-in-law Jared Kushner

The Washington Post's David Ignatius reported that Kushner will turn over all of the email traffic with Kislyak to back up his testimony as well 10 years of contacts with foreign officials.

Kushner's letter mentions 'hundreds' of calls, emails, and voice messages he received from overseas during the campaign.

President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior White House advisor, Jared Kushner (2nd L), arrives for a meeting with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence July 24, 2017 in Washington, DC. Kushner is expected to explain his role in a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer arranged by Donald Trump Jr. where damaging information against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was expected to be revealed. Also pictured is attorney Abbe Lowell (R)

Senate Intelligence Committee member Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) arrives for a closed door session in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill last week in Washington, DC. Kushner is scheduled to will speak to the committee Monday

White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, left, and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, center, walk to their vehicle on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 20, 2017, to join the motorcade with President Donald Trump for a visit to nearby Pentagon

Extortion attempt for Trump tax returns

The statement also makes reference to a blackmail attempt in which Kushner was asked to send 52 bitcoins ($144,000) or the President's tax returns would be published.

It turned out to be a hoax.

Signing off the statement, Kushner said: 'I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government. I had no improper contacts.

'I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector.

'I have tried to be fully transparent with regard to the filing of my SF-86 form, above and beyond what is required. Hopefully, this puts these matters to rest.'

Kislyak meeting at the Mayflower

Kushner first came under scrutiny for a previously undisclosed meeting with Russia's leading US diplomat. He did not list a December rendezvous with Kislyak at Trump Tower on forms he turned into the government as part of the security clearance process.

Kushner says at the event he met multiple ambassadors.

'With all the ambassadors, including Mr. Kislyak, we shook hands, exchanged brief pleasantries and I thanked them for attending the event and said I hoped they would like candidate Trump’s speech and his ideas for a fresh approach to America’s foreign policy,” Kushner wrote.

Again desrbiging the ambassadors as a group rather than singling out Russia's, he wrote: 'The ambassadors also expressed interest in creating a positive relationship should we win the election. Each exchange lasted less than a minute,' he said.

'Some gave me their business cards and invited me to lunch at their embassies. I never took them up on any of these invitations and that was the extent of the interactions,' he wrote. His statement did not reveal whether he got Kislyak's card.

He left off another meeting during the transition with a Russian banker, too, Sergey Gorkov, and a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that the president's eldest son, Don Jr, set up with a Russian lawyer who wanted to discuss adoption.

Kushner also provides an account of the Gorkov meeting, which has drawn scrutiny because of the oligarch's Putin connection as the head of a state-owned bank.

Kushner said he only set up the meeting because Kislyak, who suggested it, had been 'so insistent' about it. He said it lasted 20 to 25 minutes.

Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak arrives at the State Department in Washington to meet with Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 24, 2017, to testify before the Senate intelligence committee as part of the probe into alleged Russian meddling in last year's US presidential vote. Married to Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka, Kushner will testify in closed-door meetings before the Senate intelligence committee on Monday, according to his lawyer, and the House panel on Tuesday

25 minutes with Kremlin-linked Russian banker

When he finally met Gorkov, 'He introduced himself and gave me two gifts - one was a piece of art from Nvgorod, the village where my grandparents were from in Belarus, and the other was a bag of dirt from that same village.'

Kushner, who is being advised by top lawyer Abbe Lowell, cited these gifts as an argument that he was not concealing the meeting.

''Any notion that I tried to conceal this meeting or that I took it thinking it was in my capacity as a businessman is false. In fact, I gave my assistant these gifts to formally register them with the transition office,' he wrote.

He says Gorkov 'told me a little about his bank' and 'made some statements about the Russian economy,' and said he was 'friendly with President Putin.'

Kushner wrote that he 'expressed the same sentiments I had with other foreign officials I met' but there were 'no specific policies discussed.'

Gorkov's bank has provided a differing account: that the meeting was to discuss potential business opportunities with Kushner.

Bag of dirt

The 'bag of dirt' might seem to be an unusual gift, but might well related to a heroic story of escape from Nazi oppression in Kushner's past.

Rae Kushner, Kushner's paternal grandmother, assisted in a daring escape to tunnel out of the Jewish ghetto in Novogrudok, in Belarus, in order to survive and assist other jews.

The escape, described by Rae Kushner in an interview, involved removing and hiding dirt, getting work tools and information to plan the escape, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Trump's son thought the woman had dirt on Hillary Clinton that had been provided to her by the Russian government. She did not, the parties involved have said, and the meeting was swiftly concluded.

The fourth contact Kushner says he had with a Russian national in the course of the campaign or transition was in April of 2016. Trump delivered a foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on the day in question.

Kisylak and Kushner each attended a reception prior to the speech that was hosted by the publisher of the foreign magazine sponsoring the event.

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Congressional investigators have said they are interested in learning more about the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer Kushner and Don Jr were duped into seeing.

Trump's campaign manager at the time, Paul Manafort, was also there. So were four other people, including a Russian-American lobbyist who once served in the Kremlin's military intelligence division.

Kushner's hand in digital strategy for the campaign had some lawmakers saying they want more answers about whether Russian social media 'trolls' were connected to Trump's election efforts.

Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Kushner, said ahead of the meetings that the senior advisor tot he president 'has been and is prepared to voluntarily cooperate and provide whatever information he has on the investigations' to Congress.

Senate Intellignece Committee member Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) steps out of the committee's secure meeting space to talk on the phone in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill July 20, 2017 in Washington, DC

'He will continue to cooperate and appreciates the opportunity to assist in putting this matter to rest,' Lowell said.

California Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence panel, said on CBS's 'Face the Nation' Sunday that lawyers for Kushner had said they would make him available for two hours so 'we expect this is just going to be the first interview' of the president's son in law.

Schiff says he intends to probe Kushner on the June 2016 with Veselnitskaya and a separate meeting Kushner had with the top executive of Russia's state-supported VEB bank.

'We want to know whether those meetings took place, whether other meetings took place, we have a lot of ground to cover,' Schiff said prior to the release of Kushner's statement.

Kushner denied in the document that he hand any other secret conversations with the Russians.

'Highly skeptical' he had two phone calls with Kislyak

Two calls with Kislyak between April and November of last year that Reuters reported on have not been verified, Kushner said.

'While I participated in thousands of calls during this period, I do not recall any such calls with the Russian Ambassador,' he stated. 'We have reviewed the phone records available to us and have not been able to identify any calls to any number we know to be associated with Ambassador Kislyak and I am highly skeptical these calls took place. '

As evidence of his lack of familiarity with Kislyak, Kushner references a November email to a Russian-born magazine publisher where he wrote asking for name of the official.

The campaign had received a purported congratulatory email from Russian President Vladimir Putin the day after Trump's historic election. Kushner wanted to check it out, and reached out to the publisher who had helped orgnize Trump's Mayflower speech.

Kushner says he couldn't recall the name of Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, whom he had met, after the campaign got a post-election congratulatory email purportedly from Russian President Vladimir Putin

'In fact, on November 9, the day after the election, I could not even remember the name of the Russian Ambassador,' Kushner wrote.

In fact, on November 9, the day after the election, I could not even remember the name of the Russian Ambassador.'

Rather than employing an internet search, Kushner, who ran Trump's digital operations, decided to reach out to a contact.

After the campaign got the Putin email, Kushner thought the best way to verify it 'would be to ask the only contact I recalled meeting from the Russian government, which was the Ambassador I had met months earlier,' Kushner wrote.

So he sent the publisher Dimitri Simes, publisher of the National Interest magazine, an email asking, 'What is the name of the Russian ambassador?' Kushner wrote.'

Donald Trump Jr and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort have been invited to speak to the Senate Judiciary Committee this week about their dealings with the Russians.

The two men will sit for private interviews first, although the GOP chairman of the committee, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, has said they will eventually testify in the open.

No 'secret back channel' in effort to communicate with Kremlin generals

Kushner's letter denies any effort to set up a 'secret back channel' with the Kremlin, but offers new details on a topic that has drawn the interest of congressional investigators.

He writes that Kislyak told him during the transition of a desire to 'convey information from what he called his "generals."'

Kislyak wanted to 'provide information that would help inform the new administration' in regard to Syria, where the U.S. and Russia have been at cross-purposes.

'He said the generals could not easily come to the US to convey this information and he asked if there was a secure line in the transition office to conduct a conversation,' according to Kushner, who said either Gen. Mike Flynn or he said such secure lines didn't exist. Kushner then floated the extraordinary idea of using a Russian embassy channel – rather than a U.S. channel – to receive the information.

'I believed developing a thoughtful approach on Syria was a very high priority given the ongoing humanitarian crisis, and I asked if they had an existing communications channel at his embassy we could use where they would be comfortable transmitting the information they wanted to relay to General Flynn,' according to Kushner.

But Kislyak didn't go for it. 'The Ambassador said that would not be possible and so we all agreed that we would receive this information after the Inauguration,' Kushner said.

'Nothing else occurred. I did not suggest a "secret back channel."'

'Witch hunt'

President Trump has deemed the government investigations into his campaign's conduct a 'witch hunt.'

On Sunday, he tweeted: 'As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues, two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold, Democrats and Russians.'

He invoked Senate Democrats' leader this morning as he claimed that 'after 1 year of investigation with Zero evidence being found, Chuck Schumer just stated that "Democrats should blame ourselves,not Russia." '

Trump's tweet was in reference to a Washington Post article previewing the Democrats' revamped agenda.

'When you lose to somebody who has 40 percent popularity, you don’t blame other things — Comey, Russia — you blame yourself,' Schumer said. 'So what did we do wrong? People didn’t know what we stood for, just that we were against Trump. And still believe that.'

Trump Jr will be interviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections

As the probe heats up, Donald Trump Jr has boosted his legal team by hiring a new lawyer with experience battling Congress.

The president's son has added Karina Lynch of the law firm Williams and Jensen, a DC-based firm with more than thirty years experience in congressional investigations.

A federal special counsel is also investigating charges levied by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election. That probe has reportedly expanded to include the president's finances and the transactions of the business that he still owns and has been managed since January by his sons.

Trump Jr's new lawyer has extensive experience on Capitol Hill. She has worked for Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, the on Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and has served as investigative counsel to Grassley.

Both senators are involved in the upper chamber's Russia investigations.

Jared Kushner's statement to the congressional committee in which he admits four contacts with the Russians but denies collusion

White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner

I am voluntarily providing this statement, submitting documents, and sitting for interviews in order to shed light on issues that have been raised about my role in the Trump for President Campaign and during the transition period.

I am not a person who has sought the spotlight.

First in my business and now in public service, I have worked on achieving goals, and have left it to others to work on media and public perception.

Because there has been a great deal of conjecture, speculation, and inaccurate information about me, I am grateful for the opportunity to set the record straight.

My Role in the Trump for President Campaign

Before joining the administration, I worked in the private sector, building and managing companies.

My experience was in business, not politics, and it was not my initial intent to play a large role in my father-in-law's campaign when he decided to run for President.

However, as the campaign progressed, I was called on to assist with various tasks and aspects of the campaign, and took on more and more responsibility.

Over the course of the primaries and general election campaign, my role continued to evolve.

I ultimately worked with the finance, scheduling, communications, speechwriting, polling, data and digital teams, as well as becoming a point of contact for foreign government officials.

All of these were tasks that I had never performed on a campaign previously. When I was faced with a new challenge, I would reach out to contacts, ask advice, find the right person to manage the specific challenge, and work with that person to develop and execute a plan of action.

I was lucky to work with some incredibly talented people along the way, all of whom made significant contributions toward the campaign's ultimate success.

Our nimble culture allowed us to adjust to the ever-changing circumstances and make changes on the fly as the situation warranted.

I share this information because these actions should be viewed through the lens of a fast-paced campaign with thousands of meetings and interactions, some of which were impactful and memorable and many of which were not.

It is also important to note that a campaign's success starts with its message and its messenger.

Donald Trump had the right vision for America and delivered his message perfectly.

The results speak for themselves. Not only did President Trump defeat sixteen skilled and experienced primary opponents and win the presidency - he did so spending a fraction of what his opponent spent in the general election.

He outworked his opponent and ran one of the best campaigns in history using both modern technology and traditional methods to bring his message to the American people.

Campaign Contacts with Foreign Persons

When it became apparent that my father-in-law was going to be the Republican nominee for President, as normally happens, a number of officials from foreign countries attempted to reach out to the campaign.

My father-in-law asked me to be a point of contact with these foreign countries.

These were not contacts that I initiated, but, over the course of the campaign, I had incoming contacts with people from approximately 15 countries.

To put these requests in context, I must have received thousands of calls, letters and emails from people looking to talk or meet on a variety of issues and topics, including hundreds from outside the United States.

While I could not be responsive to everyone, I tried to be respectful of any foreign government contacts with whom it would be important to maintain an ongoing, productive working relationship were the candidate to prevail.

To that end, I called on a variety of people with deep experience, such as Dr Henry Kissinger, for advice on policy for the candidate, which countries/representatives with which the campaign should engage, and what messaging would resonate.

In addition, it was typical for me to receive 200 or more emails a day during the campaign.

I did not have the time to read every one, especially long emails from unknown senders or email chains to which I was added at some later point in the exchange.

With respect to my contacts with Russia or Russian representatives during the campaign, there were hardly any.

The first that I can recall was at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC in April 2016.

This was when then candidate Trump was delivering a major foreign policy speech.

Doing the event and speech had been my idea, and I oversaw its execution.

I arrived at the hotel early to make sure all logistics were in order.

After that, I stopped into the reception to thank the host of the event, Dimitri Simes, the publisher of the bi-monthly foreign policy magazine, The National Interest, who had done a great job putting everything together.

Mr. Simes and his group had created the guest list and extended the invitations for the event.

He introduced me to several guests, among them four ambassadors, including Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

With all the ambassadors, including Mr Kislyak, we shook hands, exchanged brief pleasantries and I thanked them for attending the event and said I hoped they would like candidate Trump's speech and his ideas for a fresh approach to America's foreign policy.

The ambassadors also expressed interest in creating a positive relationship should we win the election.

Each exchange lasted less than a minute - some gave me their business cards and invited me to lunch at their embassies.

I never took them up on any of these invitations and that was the extent of the interactions.

Reuters news service has reported that I had two calls with Ambassador Kislyak at some time between April and November of 2016.

While I participated in thousands of calls during this period, I do not recall any such calls with the Russian Ambassador.

We have reviewed the phone records available to us and have not been able to identify any calls to any number we know to be associated with Ambassador Kislyak and I am highly skeptical these calls took place.

A comprehensive review of my land line and cell phone records from the time does not reveal those calls.

I had no ongoing relationship with the Ambassador before the election, and had limited knowledge about him then.

In fact, on November 9, the day after the election, I could not even remember the name of the Russian Ambassador.

When the campaign received an email purporting to be an official note of congratulations from President Putin, I was asked how we could verify it was real.

To do so I thought the best way would be to ask the only contact I recalled meeting from the Russian government, which was the Ambassador I had met months earlier, so I sent an email asking Mr Simes, 'What is the name of the Russian ambassador?'

Through my lawyer, I have asked Reuters to provide the dates on which the calls supposedly occurred or the phone number at which I supposedly reached, or was reached by, Ambassador Kislyak.

The journalist refused to provide any corroborating evidence that they occurred.

The only other Russian contact during the campaign is one I did not recall at all until I was reviewing documents and emails in response to congressional requests for information.

In June 2016, my brother-in-law, Donald Trump Jr asked if I was free to stop by a meeting on June 9 at 3pm.

The campaign was headquartered in the same building as his office in Trump Tower, and it was common for each of us to swing by the other's meetings when requested.

He eventually sent me his own email changing the time of the meeting to 4pm.

That email was on top of a long back and forth that I did not read at the time.

As I did with most emails when I was working remotely, I quickly reviewed on my iPhone the relevant message that the meeting would occur at 4pm at his office.

Documents confirm my memory that this was calendared as 'Meeting: Don Jr.| Jared Kushner'. No one else was mentioned.

I arrived at the meeting a little late.

When I got there, the person who has since been identified as a Russian attorney was talking about the issue of a ban on US adoptions of Russian children.

I had no idea why that topic was being raised and quickly determined that my time was not well-spent at this meeting.

Reviewing emails recently confirmed my memory that the meeting was a waste of our time and that, in looking for a polite way to leave and get back to my work, I actually emailed an assistant from the meeting after I had been there for ten or so minutes and wrote 'Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting'.

I had not met the attorney before the meeting nor spoken with her since.

I thought nothing more of this short meeting until it came to my attention recently.

I did not read or recall this email exchange before it was shown to me by my lawyers when reviewing documents for submission to the committees.

No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign, there was no follow up to the meeting that I am aware of, I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), and I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted.

Finally, after seeing the email, I disclosed this meeting prior to it being reported in the press on a supplement to my security clearance form, even if that was not required as meeting the definitions of the form.

There was one more possible contact that I will note.

On October 30, 2016, I received a random email from the screenname 'Guccifer400'.

This email, which I interpreted as a hoax, was an extortion attempt and threatened to reveal candidate Trump's tax returns and demanded that we send him 52 bitcoins in exchange for not publishing that information.

I brought the email to the attention of a US Secret Service agent on the plane we were all travelling on and asked what he thought.

He advised me to ignore it and not to reply - which is what I did. The sender never contacted me again.

To the best of my recollection, these were the full extent of contacts I had during the campaign with persons who were or appeared to potentially be representatives of the Russian government.

Transition Contacts with Foreign Persons

The transition period after the election was even more active than the campaign.

Starting on election night, we began to receive an incredible volume of messages and invitations from well-wishers in the United States and abroad.

Dozens of messages came from foreign officials seeking to set up foreign leader calls and create lines of communication and relationships with what would be the new administration.

During this period, I recall having over fifty contacts with people from over fifteen countries.

Two of those meetings were with Russians, neither of which I solicited.

On November 16, 2016, my assistant received a request for a meeting from the Russian Ambassador.

As I mentioned before, previous to receiving this request, I could not even recall the Russian Ambassador's name, and had to ask for the name of the individual I had seen at the Mayflower Hotel almost seven months earlier.

In addition, far from being urgent, that meeting was not set up for two weeks - on December 1.

The meeting occurred in Trump Tower, where we had our transition office, and lasted twenty- thirty minutes.

Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (Ret), who became the President's National Security Advisor, also attended.

During the meeting, after pleasantries were exchanged, as I had done in many of the meetings I had and would have with foreign officials, I stated our desire for a fresh start in relations.

Also, as I had done in other meetings with foreign officials, I asked Ambassador Kislyak if he would identify the best person (whether the Ambassador or someone else) with whom to have direct discussions and who had contact with his President.

The fact that I was asking about ways to start a dialogue after Election Day should of course be viewed as strong evidence that I was not aware of one that existed before Election Day.

The Ambassador expressed similar sentiments about relations, and then said he especially wanted to address US policy in Syria, and that he wanted to convey information from what he called his 'generals'.

He said he wanted to provide information that would help inform the new administration.

He said the generals could not easily come to the US to convey this information and he asked if there was a secure line in the transition office to conduct a conversation.

General Flynn or I explained that there were no such lines.

I believed developing a thoughtful approach on Syria was a very high priority given the ongoing humanitarian crisis, and I asked if they had an existing communications channel at his embassy we could use where they would be comfortable transmitting the information they wanted to relay to General Flynn.

The Ambassador said that would not be possible and so we all agreed that we would receive this information after the Inauguration.

Nothing else occurred. I did not suggest a 'secret back channel'.

I did not suggest an on-going secret form of communication for then or for when the administration took office.

I did not raise the possibility of using the embassy or any other Russian facility for any purpose other than this one possible conversation in the transition period.

We did not discuss sanctions.

Approximately a week later, on December 6, the Embassy asked if I could meet with the Ambassador on December 7. I declined.

They then asked if I could meet on December 6, I declined again.

They then asked when the earliest was that I could meet.

I declined these requests because I was working on many other responsibilities for the transition.

He asked if he could meet my assistant instead and, to avoid offending the Ambassador, I agreed.

He did so on December 12.

My assistant reported that the Ambassador had requested that I meet with a person named Sergey Gorkov who he said was a banker and someone with a direct line to the Russian President who could give insight into how Putin was viewing the new administration and best ways to work together.

I agreed to meet Mr Gorkov because the Ambassador has been so insistent, said he had a direct relationship with the President, and because Mr Gorkov was only in New York for a couple days.

I made room on my schedule for the meeting that occurred the next day, on December 13.

The meeting with Mr Gorkov lasted twenty to twenty-five minutes.

He introduced himself and gave me two gifts - one was a piece of art from Nvgorod, the village where my grandparents were from in Belarus, and the other was a bag of dirt from that same village. (Any notion that I tried to conceal this meeting or that I took it thinking it was in my capacity as a businessman is false. In fact, I gave my assistant these gifts to formally register them with the transition office).

After that, he told me a little about his bank and made some statements about the Russian economy.

He said that he was friendly with President Putin, expressed disappointment with US-Russia relations under President Obama and hopes for a better relationship in the future.

As I did at the meeting with Ambassador Kislyak, I expressed the same sentiments I had with other foreign officials I met.

There were no specific policies discussed.

We had no discussion about the sanctions imposed by the Obama Administration.

At no time was there any discussion about my companies, business transactions, real estate projects, loans, banking arrangements or any private business of any kind.

At the end of the short meeting, we thanked each other and I went on to other meetings.

I did not know or have any contact with Mr Gorkov before that meeting, and I have had no reason to connect with him since.

To the best of my recollection, these were the only two contacts I had during the transition with persons who were or appeared to potentially be representatives of the Russian government.

Disclosure of Contacts on My Security Clearance Form

There has been a good deal of misinformation reported about my SF-86 form.

As my attorneys and I have previously explained, my SF-86 application was prematurely submitted due to a miscommunication and initially did not list any contacts (not just with Russians) with foreign government officials.

Here are some facts about that form and the efforts I have made to supplement it.

In the week before the Inauguration, amid the scramble of finalizing the unwinding of my involvement from my company, moving my family to Washington, completing the paper work to divest assets and resign from my outside positions and complete my security and financial disclosure forms, people at my New York office were helping me find the information, organize it, review it and put it into the electronic form.

They sent an email to my assistant in Washington, communicating that the changes to one particular section were complete; my assistant interpreted that message as meaning that the entire form was completed.

At that point, the form was a rough draft and still had many omissions including not listing any foreign government contacts and even omitted the address of my father-in-law (which was obviously well known).

Because of this miscommunication, my assistant submitted the draft on January 18, 2017.

That evening, when we realized the form had been submitted prematurely, we informed the transition team that we needed to make changes and additions to the form.

The very next day, January 19, 2017, we submitted supplemental information to the transition, which confirmed receipt and said they would immediately transmit it to the FBI.

The supplement disclosed that I had 'numerous contacts with foreign officials' and that we were going through my records to provide an accurate and complete list.

I provided a list of those contacts in the normal course, before my background investigation interview and prior to any inquiries or media reports about my form.

It has been reported that my submission omitted only contacts with Russians.

That is not the case. In the accidental early submission of the form, all foreign contacts were omitted.

The supplemental information later disclosed over one hundred contacts from more than twenty countries that might be responsive to the questions on the form.

These included meetings with individuals such as Jordan's King Abdullah II, Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Luis Videgaray Caso and many more. All of these had been left off before.

Over the last six months, I have made every effort to provide the FBI with whatever information is needed to investigate my background.

In addition, my attorneys have explained that the security clearance process is one in which supplements are expected and invited.

The form itself instructs that, during the interview, the information in the document can be 'update[d], clarif[ied], and explain[ed]' as part of the security clearance process. A good example is the June 9 meeting.

For reasons that should be clear from the explanation of that meeting I have provided, I did not remember the meeting and certainly did not remember it as one with anyone who had to be included on an SF-86.

When documents reviewed for production in connection with committee requests reminded me that meeting had occurred, and because of the language in the email chain that I then read for the first time, I included that meeting on a supplement.

I did so even though my attorneys were unable to conclude that the Russian lawyer was a representative of any foreign country and thus fell outside the scope of the form.

This supplemental information was also provided voluntarily, well prior to any media inquiries, reporting or request for this information, and it was done soon after I was reminded of the meeting.

As I have said from the very first media inquiry, I am happy to share information with the investigating bodies.

I have shown today that I am willing to do so and will continue to cooperate as I have nothing to hide.

As I indicated, I know there has been a great deal of speculation and conjecture about my contacts with any officials or people from Russia.

I have disclosed these contacts and described them as fully as I can recall.

The record and documents I am providing will show that I had perhaps four contacts with Russian representatives out of thousands during the campaign and transition, none of which were impactful in any way to the election or particularly memorable.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to set the record straight. I also have tried to provide context for my role in the campaign, and I am proud of the candidate that we supported, of the campaign that we ran, and the victory that we achieved.

It has been my practice not to appear in the media or leak information in my own defense.

I have tried to focus on the important work at hand and serve this President and this country to the best of my abilities.

I hope that through my answers to questions, written statements and documents I have now been able to demonstrate the entirety of my limited contacts with Russian representatives during the campaign and transition.

I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government. I had no improper contacts.

I have not relied on Russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector.

I have tried to be fully transparent with regard to the filing of my SF-86 form, above and beyond what is required. Hopefully, this puts these matters to rest.

The revelation that Trump Jr, Kushner and Manafort met with Veselnitskaya in hopes of obtaining damaging information on Hillary Clinton added a new dimension to the the allegations that the Trump campaign collaborated with the Kremlin to boost their odds of winning the White House.

The Kremlin has denied any interference, and Trump says his campaign did not collude with Moscow.

After the president mentioned his power to pardon last week, a legal debate erupted over the executive's ability to shield himself from criminal charges.

While the White House and Trump's lawyers maintain that Trump does retain authority to authorize pardons, they've since said it's an unnecessary topic of exploration since the president, his family and his associates have committed no crimes.

In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on July 11, Trump Jr did say, 'In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently.'

Since he received no information on Clinton from the Kremlin, the president's legal and communications team says his actions did not rise to the level of collusion.

Lynch, the new lawyer for Trump Jr, is already said to have set a private meeting between Trump Jr and the Senate Judiciary Committee, ensuring that he will not have to testify publicly on Wednesday, according to Fox Business Network.

Trump Jr is also represented by Alan Futerfas, a criminal defense attorney with 25 years experience, who has frequently represented clients in cyber-security cases.